


The Breakage of the Dollar Tree Accords

by FB Wickersham (perpetfic)



Series: The Blue Stones [20]
Category: Blue Stones - Fandom, original writing
Genre: Gen, Mild Transphobia, Trans Character, blue org demons are super huge assholes, blue stones, i gotta get Mason a last name, org demons are assholes, punx is a very good boy, trans lead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 01:22:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15984584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/FB%20Wickersham
Summary: Mason needs like seven things from the Dollar Tree, but weird shit is afoot. Or, really, affront (affront of the store!) [I'm not sorry].





	The Breakage of the Dollar Tree Accords

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to HugeAlienPie who knows how to swing a good beta.
> 
> Heads up: The end notes include mention and a brief discussion of the transphobia in the story. An FYI in case you'd rather skip it. If you'd like the notes WITHOUT that bit, it's in the first comment after the story.

Mason stares as he parks his car outside of the Dollar Tree. "Punx," he says, and the wire-haired mutt in the passenger seat gives him a lazy doggy grin. "You see what I see?" Mason points, and Punx leans over and licks his finger. Mason laughs. "Good boy. Stay." He opens all the windows a quarter of the way and steps out of the car.

He reaches for his phone and frames the shot. The front of the Dollar Tree is surrounded every eighteen inches (and Mason knows from experience it's an _exact_ eighteen inches) by organizational demons. They're lined up by color: red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, all the way around the building, it looks like. 

Mason presses the record button on his phone. "Hey, fellas!" he yells. 

Every blue organizational demon turns to look at him, fists up, ready to fight. They breathe in as one, and they hiss in perfect synchronization. Punx growls from the car. 

"What's up?" Mason asks, unfazed by the power display. Org demons have been hissing at him for screwing up the order of the world since he was thirteen and started questioning who he really was. He's twenty now, and they've long since ceased to intimidate him. "Who's in charge?" he asks. "I know one of you is in charge."

The blues hiss again. A yellow turns around and eyes him. "I am in charge," it says. It wrinkles its nose. "Excuse my colleagues." The yellow snaps its spindly fingers once, and all the blues turn to face the store again. 

"Think that's the first time one of you has apologized to me for that," Mason says, surprised. 

"Politeness is a much more organized way to do things," the yellow says. 

"I retract my statement," Mason replies, just stopping himself from clicking his tongue in disapproval like his mother does. "What's happening?" He waves at the collection of demons. "This isn't what the outside of the Dollar Tree usually looks like."

"Yes, we cleaned up some refuse and took some items to a recycling bin behind the store. And then we swept up and--"

"I mean that you all don't usually get within thirty feet of a Dollar Tree," Mason interrupts before the list can become a full monologue. 

"There are chaos demons inside."

Mason shrugs. "There are always chaos demons inside. Watching people shop at Dollar Tree is like professional sports to them."

"They are not watching," the yellow says. "They are _moving_ things."

"What?"

"They are moving things," the yellow repeats. 

"That's not…" Mason taps his phone to stop the recording and gives the yellow his full attention. "That's off."

"It is disorganized. It is not how they should act."

"Yeah," Mason agrees quietly. He glances over his shoulder. Punx has his head hanging out the window, sniffing the air and completely relaxed. Nothing magically weird happening, then.

But chaos demons moving stuff around in a Dollar Tree? And organizational demons coming to keep watch? That's weird-weird. 

"Why are you here?" Mason asks. "Chaos demons fuck stuff up all the time. Maybe the ones in there are drunk or something."

"They have never disorganized a Dollar Tree," the yellow says. "As you mentioned, they like to watch the disorganization that occurs naturally. Moving items around in there is not organized for them."

"I see," Mason says. "You got a bad feeling and came searching, huh?"

"Yes." The yellow glances behind itself. The other demons are still in formation. "We have no plan of action because this has never happened before and improvisation--"

"I get it," Mason says. He's surprised when the yellow looks back at him and looks pleading. "What?"

"You are a Blue Stone. You can improvise."

Mason wants to scoff and refuse to help. But chaos demons intensifying the sort of in-progress chaos that happens at the Dollar Tree can't be ignored. "I'll see what's happening," he says. "But if any more of your friends hiss at me, I'm punting them."

"Understood," the yellow says.

Mason takes a deep breath and centers himself, letting the power from his stone wrap around him as he steps in the door of the Dollar Tree. 

Inside, there's not sign of great chaos, only the many signs of why the Dollar Tree is such a magnet for chaos demons looking for a free show. There's a rolling rack of bread in the middle of the floor, next to a jumble of leftover Halloween decorations and an already half-destroyed display of Thanksgiving tchotchkes. A little girl is running up and down the aisle of gift bags, slapping her hand against each bag she can reach. Mason tweaks his power so it fills his vision. With the haze of magic in his eyes, he can see the little girl is really a chaos demon. 

Mason walks to the gift bag aisle and crouches down as the little girl runs towards him. "Hi!" he says. "That looks like a fun game."

The little girl sticks out her tongue. "I don't wanna play with you." 

"That's okay," Mason replies. He pulls his wand from the Not-Space and flicks a shield spell around the demon. "I'm not playing."

"Hey!" the little girl shouts. Thanks to the shielding spell, no one turns to look. 

Mason taps his wand to her head, and she shorts out like a failing graphics card, going from a little girl, to a blast of static, to the natural form of a chaos demon. It has one short horn and three legs. It's a deep purple speckled with white spots on its back. 

"Hey!" it yells again, though the voice this time is tinnier, almost a squeak. 

"Ally oop," Mason says, grabbing the demon by the horn and tossing it into the Not-Space. 

He checks the next aisle. There's an old lady looking at the books and a man counting out bubble mailers. In the next, two chaos demons--disguised rather unimaginatively as junior high boy--are mixing up items on the hooks. 

Mason throws the shielding spell before they see him. They groan in disappointment when they feel it take effect. "Come on," one says, "it's the Dollar Tree."

"Neutral territory," the other says.

"It is not," Mason replies. This time, he can't stop the tongue click. "The Dollar Tree accords allow for chaos demons to passively participate in the natural chaos of the storefront business. You violate the accords if you make it worse."

"Fuck," the first one says. 

"Civics is for losers," the second says. "You're a loser."

"Okay," Mason replies. He makes a show of reaching out with his wand. The first demon shrinks away. The second one sticks their chin out in defiance. Mason taps them first and tosses them into the Not-Space. He taps his wand against his leg as he looks over the first demon. Their form is starting to give under stress, and there's a jagged scar across their left ear. "Who got you?" 

The demon pulls a face. "One of yours. I don't know which one. The stone was set in the wheelchair wheels." 

"Gwen," Mason says. "She packs a punch."

"Yeah, thanks. I know." 

Mason glances towards the front of the store. He can see the organizational demons still on watch outside. "What are you all up to that you pulled the org demons this close to a Dollar Tree?"

The demon glances towards the doors, grins, and laughs. "Oh, man, that's great! We haven't freaked them out this bad since the subprime mortgage thing!"

"What do you mean?"

The demon shuts its mouth hard. "Nothing."

Mason tries to stare it down, but it just stares back. Chaos demons love staring contests, so Mason doesn't try to win. He shorts the demon back to its natural form and tosses it in the Not-Space. 

There are four other chaos demons in the store. None of them tell Mason anything. When he mentions subprime mortgages, they all get the giggles.

"I am _still_ amazed we pulled that off," the last one says. "I mean, our best hope was maybe a few people lost their houses, but a worldwide _recession_? None of us called that."

"Messing with things here today, is that part of a new plan?" Mason asks. 

"What? No. We were bored."

It's bullshit, but Mason doesn't say so. Chaos demons are cocky by nature. If Mason plays a little dumb, the demons will just pat themselves on the back for lying so well. "Into the hole," Mason says instead of asking more questions.

The org demons are relaxed when he walks out, or as relaxed as they get. They're clustered in groups of three--one red, one blue, and one yellow in each group--except for the leader, who is standing perfectly center on the sidewalk, watching Mason. 

"You shopped?" the yellow asks in disbelief, seeing the bag in Mason's hand. 

"I was here for it anyway," Mason replies. He glances at Punx. His ears are up, and his doggy grin is huge, happy to see his human. No magical weirdness in the air for him to sniff out. 

"Did you guys get a twinge when subprime mortgages happened?" Mason asks the yellow.

"Why?" the yellow asks. 

"One of them mentioned it. I'm curious," Mason says. 

The yellow shakes its head. "We don't discuss our work outside of our own circles. It can be misinterpreted."

Misinterpretation causes chaos, Mason thinks. "I'm not asking for details. Just a yes or no answer."

The yellow shakes its head harder. " That is still discussion. It's not allowed." 

It looks up at Mason, and Mason is shocked to see it's biting its lip. Org demons don't have unconscious habits or tics. It's messy. Mason feels off-balance. Chaos demons messing around in a Dollar Tree? Weird but not out of the question. But this organizational demon showing a splash of individualism? That's _definitely_ out of the question.

"Okay," Mason says slowly. He taps his bottom lip a few times. The yellow one pushes its lip out of its mouth and glances over quickly to see if the other demons have noticed. They're all in conversation with each other. "But maybe see if someone higher up can provide us with a yes or no, would you?"

The yellow meets Mason's eyes again, something like relief flashing across its face. "I will ask," it says. 

"Thanks," Mason says. He reaches into the Dollar Tree bag and pulls out a small plastic container with six same-size compartments. "Here," he says. "I thought you guys might like this." 

The yellow takes the container and turns it over in its hands. Its face is bright with happiness. "They're the same size."

"Yeah. I got it in black since it's easier to keep clean than the clear ones. I figured you guys hate fingerprints."

There's a hiss from one side. "Fingerprints," a red snaps. "Why do humans have fingerprints?"

"They get on everything," a blue adds. 

"The matte-cover books at the library are a mess," says another red. There's a collective shudder amongst the crowd. 

"Why are you giving this to us?" the yellow asks.

"I don't know," Mason answers because he really doesn't. "I saw it, and it was a dollar, and it kind of sucks that the Dollar Tree is scary for you guys."

"We still don't like you," a blue calls out. 

"It's not a hiss, I can't punt him," Mason says before the yellow can do more than open its mouth. "If your bosses are willing to talk, you know where The House is." There's a chorus of hisses. Even the yellow Mason's been talking to lets one loose.

"Have a good day," Mason says, rather than get angry. He's always found it funny how much the organizational demons hate The House. Too many personalities, too many ways to do magic, too many ways to wear a stone. But every now and again, an organizational demon or two has darkened the doorway in need of a favor. Mason can appreciate the dichotomy of that. If the yellow can get its boss's okay to talk, maybe the org demons can give the Stones a hand for once. 

"Hi, buddy," Mason says to Punx as he gets in the car. "Sorry you couldn't come in with me." 

Punx licks his nose and sniffs at the bag Mason drops in the passenger seat footwell. "No snacks there," Mason says as he starts the car and rolls up the windows. 

He scratches Punx behind the ears as he takes out his phone and brings up the video he'd taken. He opens it and watches it through. When he looks up again, the org demons are gone. Mason chooses the "share" option and sends the video to the main Aunties email address. He taps a quick message to go along with it:

 _Full report to come, but half a dozen chaos demons violating the Dollar Tree accords. Mentioned that subprime mortgages were the last time they got the org demons worked up like this. Org demons wouldn't give me any info. No injuries. Org demons still hissing at me_. 

He opens his ongoing text thread with Nicole and taps out another message: 

_CDs fucking up a DT w/ ODs outside in formation. Subprime mortgages only clue???_

Mason tucks his phone back into his pocket and puts the car into reverse. "Let's go do dishes," he says. Punx thumps his tail twice. Mason rolls down the window, and Punx sticks his nose out of it as they turn onto the street.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Mason was first mentioned in "Meet (Some of) the Aunties." His pronouns at that time were they/them. He's moved to he/him since as he's grown more into himself and is very happy.
> 
> 2\. Nicole was his roommate at The House, and they've stayed very close friends.
> 
> 3\. Punx is a terrier mutt. He hunts weather groundhogs and other magical beasties. Mason named him thinking a groundhog and a gopher were the same thing (regional variances, you know). When he found out they WEREN'T, Punx refused to answer to any other name (He is named for Punxsutawney Phil). 
> 
> 4\. This is a bit of side story that happens during the events of Confounding Chaos, but since that's Hazel's story, this one doesn't fit in the narrative outside of a reference. I do have other stories planned for Mason. 
> 
> 5\. Blue org demons are total assholes because they HATE that they have anything in common with Blue Stones, whom they consider super chaotic and unorganized. They are special assholes to Mason (the hissing) because they are also assholes about trans people. Other org demons don't agree with them but also don't understand that they could kick the blues out because "that's not how things are done." 
> 
> 6\. "Gayle, are org demons symbolism for people who are complicit in the douchebaggery of others?" I think we can all agree that I have not be subtle with my symbolism at any point. So, yes.


End file.
